Overview

Written by a journalist, this book depicts the day-to-day struggles and concerns of inmates a the Connecticut Correctional Institution in Niantic (renamed the Janet S. York correctional Institution), the state's only prison for women. Build in 1917 as a work farm for prostitutes, unwed mothers, and other women of allegedly immoral character, ""the Farm,"" as it is still called, has long served as a barometer of prevailing social attitudes toward women. In the summer of 1992, Andi Rierden obtained permission from the warden at Niantic to conduct research on life inside the institution. During the next three and a half years, she spent more than fifteen hundred hours among the women, recording interviews, strolling the grounds with inmates and corrections officers, sharing meals, attending classes and group counseling sessions, and tracking former inmates after their release. The stories these women tell shed light ton a wide range of issues, from the effects of more stringent drug laws and sentences to the rise of violence among inmates. In the process it becomes clear that the ideal of rehabilitation has been largely abandoned and replaced by a belief in punishment and retribution.

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9781558490802

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Reviews

An intelligent, absorbing look at prison reform and, more particularly, at the issue of women in prison.--Kirkus Reviews [Rierden] spend three and a half years a Connecticut's on y prison for women . . . interviewing prisoners whose background often included urban violence, drugs, gangs, and abuse, as well as their counselors and correctional officers. The result is part sociological study, part hard-hitting journalistic account of the lives, past and present, of these women.--Library Journal An insightful, thoughtful, and troubling account of how we as a society are dealing--or failing to deal--with one of our most intractable social problems--Ronald Goldstock, American Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section

An intelligent, absorbing look at prison reform and, more particularly, at the issue of women in prison.--Kirkus Reviews [Rierden] spend three and a half years a Connecticut's on y prison for women . . . interviewing prisoners whose background often included urban violence, drugs, gangs, and abuse, as well as their counselors and correctional officers. The result is part sociological study, part hard-hitting journalistic account of the lives, past and present, of these women.--Library Journal An insightful, thoughtful, and troubling account of how we as a society are dealing--or failing to deal--with one of our most intractable social problems--Ronald Goldstock, American Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section

A sober, intelligent study of the changing dynamics of a women's prison. The Connecticut Correctional Institute in Niantic, nicknamed The Farm by its inmates, has a long and honorable tradition. Its prisoners historically grew their own vegetables and cared for farm animals; the prison is located in a lovely rural spot. Rierden (Journalism/Fairfield Univ.) studied the inmates from 1992 to 1995, as the prison population began to shift from one-time offenders to serious repeat offenders, some with AIDS, many with serious drug problems. Rierden's narrative focuses on several older inmates, including Delia Robinson, a matronly woman with a violent streak triggered by alcohol. Robinson had spent long stretches in Niantic, the first when she killed another woman, the second after she killed her abusive son. It takes Robinson years to admit her alcoholism and her responsibility for her son's depraved, short life. It's to Rierden's credit that the reader understands why the other inmates revere the woman they call Miss D; her slow emergence from the prison system takes on heroic proportions. Other inmates are of more questionable character; unlike Delia, Bonnie Foreshaw vehemently denies she murdered a pregnant woman and blames race bias for a conviction in what she insists was an accidental shooting. Rierden reports without comment Bonnie's exculpatory account along with those of several eyewitnesses, who tell a far different story. Niantic is, as Rierden reports, the object of much interest, both as a model for the old-style system of reforming prisoners and as a relic in a new era showing much less interest in rehabilitation. Bucking that trend, largely through the efforts of longtime guards and a thoughtful warden, a drug rehabilitation center has been established, and the prison itself has been restored to much of its old glory as a farm for damaged people. An intelligent, absorbing look at prison reform and, more particularly, at the issue of women in prison. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Andi Rierden is an adjunct professor of journalism at Fairfield University and frequently writes on urban issues for the Sunday New York Times.

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